India, Oct. 4 -- In June 2006, when civil servant Pankaj was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a corruption case and sent to jail for two months, his wife Sweta began knocking on lawyers' doors, looking for someone who could secure his release.

Instead, she says, the experience left her struggling to understand what was happening to her husband and increasingly frustrated with the way his case was being handled. That frustration eventually took her to law school, turning a wife seeking legal help into a lawyer who would go on to take charge of her husband's case.

Their nearly two-decade journey, from Pankaj's arrest and imprisonment to his eventual acquittal and Sweta's decision to study law, is now the subject of...